Bryan Elementary second grade teacher Daina Singletary conducts a reading lesson with her students.

A Bryan Elementary teacher has undergone a rigorous 18 month test to become one of 29 teachers in Jefferson County to receive certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

Second-grade teacher Daina Singletary has worked at Bryan for about 10 years. Becoming National Board Certified required a combination of self-assessment and external evaluation. Singletary had to write long applications, video herself in her classroom and submit her teaching philosophies, techniques and strategies to a panel, who ultimately determined she was qualified to be certified.

“She is an excellent teacher,” said Bryan Elementary School Principal Debra Campbell. “It’s great to be able to tell parents that we have a National Board Certified teacher here.”

Singletary’s certification is in early childhood literacy. She had to complete four portfolios’ worth of work; they mostly addressed how her teaching associate’s writing with reading.

“It was a lot of hard work for me, but it helped me know I’m doing a good job for the kids I serve,” said Singletary. “I really wanted to go through the process to see how I was affecting my students.”

Singletary was a stay-at-home mom until she was 33; she decided to become a school teacher after her daughter, who has cerebral palsy, began school.

“Her teachers were telling me all these things she needed, and I didn’t understand what they meant,” she said. After that, Singletary got her teaching degree from UAB, as well as a master’s degree later.

“Certification is a direct indicator of the quality of instruction,” said Jefferson County Board of Education Deputy Superintendent of Education Rita Wright.

Singletary will receive an extra $5,000 a year in salary and a one-time $5,000 award for her to spend on her classroom, provided proration cuts don’t eliminate the money. She also receives nine hours of graduate school credit. She said she may take advantage of those hours in the near future and pursue a Ph.D., although she hasn’t made a concrete decision, yet.

Singletary, along with Gardendale High School teachers Mandi Adams and Jay Green and Snow Rogers Elementary School teachers Tracee Currett and Angela Parrish, will be honored at an upcoming Jefferson County Education ceremony at Shades Valley High School on Friday from 6 to 8:30 p.m.